Colin Miller – Playing Guitar During Brain Surgery! | Brain Tumour Research
A British man played an acoustic guitar during an eight-hour brain operation. If the tumor involves or is near important parts of the brain, doctors should check to see if the surgery is damaging brain function. So the man continued to play his guitar while doctors removed a tumor the size of a golf ball.
This man is Colin Miller from Kent, England. According to Brain Tumor Research, in October 2023, Miller was returning from a vacation in Cyprus when the left side of his face went into spasms and he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer. . Shortly after, he underwent surgery at King’s College Hospital in London to remove a golf ball-sized tumor from his brain.
Miller, who had just started playing the guitar, was given a choice between undergoing brain surgery and being put to sleep under anesthesia or staying awake. Doctors asked Miller how he usually moved his left side, and Miller answered, “I play the guitar.” In order to “not lose the motor skills of my hands and fingers,” Miller chose to remain awake during part of the surgery rather than being under anesthesia for the entire procedure.
Miller brought an acoustic guitar to the operating room, woke up mid-surgery, and started playing. “I couldn’t play the songs I knew very well, but I played the chords. Everything about the experience was fascinating,” Miller recalled.
In a video posted by Brain Tumour Research, Miller can be seen nonchalantly playing various basic chords, completely unfazed by the sounds and movements of medical staff manipulating surgical instruments around him. .
After surgery, Miller underwent chemotherapy and radiation therapy and has now resumed his musical career, playing guitar and occasionally singing in the local Herne Bay Baptist Church band.
Miller also participated in the 99 Miles in November Challenge to raise money for Brain Tumour Research, raising money for the organization. Donations will support the organization’s mission to “find a cure for all types of brain tumors.”
There have been cases of people playing musical instruments during brain surgery, including one man playing the guitar, another man playing the saxophone, one man playing the Beatles’ “Yesterday,” and one man playing the system.・While playing Of A Down and Deftones, each had undergone brain surgery.
